The Love Equation: Where Has All The Serendipity Gone?

Lately, I have been forced to wonder whatever happened to meeting someone the old fashioned way. Doesn’t anyone drink a little too much and meet the love of their life in a bar at one o’clock in the morning anymore? Totally kidding! I, for one, have never met anyone in a bar because to be honest, I am not all that friendly to strangers. As in, if I didn’t come to the bar with you, I most likely don’t want to talk to you and if you try to talk to me, it will definitely be awkward for us both. This is why I perpetually have a drink in my hand; I am saving you from buying me said drink and subjecting the both of us to the awkward New Girl type Valentine’s Day scene that is on the verge of going down. Needless to say, dating is not my forte, but I am here to talk about it with all of you anyway! Here we go…

I really can’t say I was ever an expert on dating or finding love, but I am certain it continues to get more complicated as we catapult further into a world of social media, reality television and increasing standards of perfection and efficiency. I come from the school of high school sweethearts and hometown love; love by way of fate and happenstance. I dated my high school sweetheart for over seven years after I mustered up the courage to leave a note on his car after a baseball game, and I suppose I have expected the same type of innocence ever since. As reality sets in, though, I am beginning to feel like a lone wolf.

Like many of you, I have been seriously contemplating what love has come to these days. I feel like that is something my grandmother would say to me followed by “kids these days”, but I can’t help it; that is the actual thought that went through my mind and I try to be honest with all of you. When we take a step back, it would seem that we now live in a world in which we pay professional matchmakers to help us find love, where every flavor of online dating site one could think of is accessible at the click of a button and for which love is also seen as entertainment by way of reality shows for meeting your significant other. Is there no such thing as a serendipitous “meet cute” anymore? Friends, are we experiencing the death of true love and soulmates?

The popular theory used to be that there was one person for everyone and when the time was right, that person would find their way into your life. Our one true love would be the person who is drawn to us for everything that we are and in spite of the things that we are not. Our mothers (and the movies) tell us that there is someone out there for everyone and one day, that perfect person will come along and you’ll just know. It may sound cheesy, but most of my friends have happened upon their soulmates in a way that really does restore your faith in fate. College sweethearts who met through a mutual friend freshman year; teammates on the university’s rowing team; an interviewer and an interviewee at a law firm that ended up falling in love, and two who actually did meet in a bar thanks to a second friend encouraging the “hello”. But, as I take a broader look, I wonder if these stories are becoming less prevalent. It seems we are turning into a society that has traded in fairy tale endings and fate for the science of love. I wonder if all of the sudden, an equation for happiness exists that we are each supposed to be solving for.

As we look around, we quickly realize love means big business; matchmaking is taking its turn as a cultural phenomenon. Professional matchmakers are now New York Times bestsellers with titles like Get The Guy, authors of advice blogs and columns and leaders of multi-million dollar agencies that help people find love every day. I like to believe that all of these professionals are truly in the business because they want to help their clients find the love they are looking for, complete their lives, but how far are we all willing to go as the “client”? Most matchmakers in the spotlight seem like genuinely lovely people, but it is hard for me to comprehend that true love comes from being “coached” or given an education on how to “get the guy.” Have we become a society that feels we need to follow rules like…

Creating a fast attraction.

The spirit you want to bring to this date is the spirit of play!

Be spontaneous!

And my personal favorite…

You are building a brand- makeup, clothes, the vocabulary you use – you are your own brand.

Build my own brand?! That just seems like a great deal of work for something that is believed, by some, to be largely handled by fate. Don’t get me wrong – I have never been one to back down from a challenge and I am always more than willing to pay my dues to get to where I am headed, but I do not feel like the work ethic I apply to my career should apply to my love life. Do I really have to market myself like the latest fashion concept? I feel like I need to buy ad space in Vogue and hire an agent. Or a matchmaker…

Another crazy concern I have? What if I am actually not spontaneous? If I am not a fly-by-the-seat of my pants type of girl, I doubt I want to convince someone that I am, only to have said person fall in love with the woman I am not. Let’s not even get started on “spirit of play” and “creating fast attraction” because I am just old fashioned enough to think there is such a thing as love at first sight. Attraction is supposed to be a natural occurrence, one that has been referred to as “a spark” between two people who are compatible. Admittedly, I have been out of the game for a minute but I believe in first dates and feeling nervous; holding hands and anxious excitement; butterflies over genuine qualities that make you feel like you can’t help but go in for that first kiss. I am not convinced these feelings can or should be “created” but, perhaps the game has drastically changed.

In general, I try to be a “don’t knock it ‘til you try it” type of girl, so I am not hanging matchmakers completely out to dry. Certainly, there are those who need help in the love department and I may very well be one of those individuals. There is no doubt they have successfully helped thousands, probably millions, of couples find their happily ever after and that just may be the greatest gift you can give someone. The truth is, the logical part of my brain understands fighting for love; sometimes you absolutely have to create your own ending. When you examine even the greatest of fairy tales, you see not everything was left to fate, as evidenced in one of my favorite quotes…

Still, when we consider all sides, there is a fine line between fighting for love and creating it, no? Fate brought Cinderella and Prince Charming together, they simply fought to ensure that love didn’t slip through their fingers. Charming loved Cindy even when her personal brand screamed more cleaning service than strong, kind souled princess at heart.

Overall, I suppose I have always been a hopeless romantic, as old fashioned or outdated as that may be. I am a girl in love with the love that the greatest stories ever told are rooted in. I watch White Christmas every holiday season and believe Casablanca, Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Titanic and When Harry Met Sally to be some of the most dynamic love stories ever told. I know what you are thinking; they don’t end up together in Casablanca, but they did fall madly in love after fate brought them together, a love that would end up saving Ingrid Bergman’s life. Paul loved Holly Golightly because of how absurd she was and they were magnetic. Nobody created the attraction that Harry and Sally finally gave into and if Jack and Rose, a couple that epitomized soulmates, had a matchmaker, he or she probably would have ratted them out to Cal before the two could have ignited that famous spark.

At the end of the day, I am over the moon for those lucky-in-love who found their better half online or through a matchmaker but, that just isn’t me. I hold out hope that we have not seen the death of fate and soulmates, one person for everyone and love at first sight; serendipity as they say. My wish is that there is still a little John Cusak in all of us. After all, he said it best in the movie of the same name, “Serendipity. It’s such a wonderful sound for what it means, a fortunate accident.”

So, what is the consensus, Gigglers? Are we strategically giving our hearts away or still allowing them to be stolen in those serendipitous moments?